As you become accustomed to using Twitter, you will want to connect with your following in other ways.
This is where having a blog comes in. It is a place to assemble your Twitter congregation. On your blog you can elaborate on your Twitter message. Your Twitter efforts should interest people in knowing more. Send them to your blog.
Blogs are not difficult to set up, but they do require some discipline to maintain. Many churches build their web sites on blogging platforms but they do not use the features that make blogs so powerful — the ability to attract followers and interact with them.
We’ve written a lot about blogging on this web site. Type “blog” within the site search box on the right to find articles. Or go to the Social Media Category.
For now, here are some tips to refresh about blogging.
Write about things of interest to others beyond your immediate congregation. If you write about things in your community, you will attract community attention. If you write about yourself, you will interest only a few of your members. You will get discouraged and quit because you will conclude early on that it is a waste of time.
Give your efforts a year before measuring worth. It takes six months to start getting traffic and and meaningful growth takes more than a year. Can you think of a better way to attract 1000 followers in a year’s time?
Aim for 200 to 500 words.
Use images. They attract attention and are an additional way to communicate. Images are available online. They are often free with a link required. We uses photopin.com.
Again, we’ve written many posts on this topic. Dig around.
In our Twitter experiment I started researching the power of the #-tag.
The # is a way of finding people who share your interests — long-term interests or passing fancies.
I started by plugging #church into the search box at the top of the twitter page.
Tons of tweets followed, a few of them of interest.
Here is a link to one of them. It addresses church polity and how church polity can go against church law depending on the faddish thinking of church leaders or members at the time.
It is precisely the same problem Redeemer faces with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (SEPA / ELCA). Church polity can go against its own written laws and the courts will not uphold church law. In our case, they won’t even hear the case.
The lesson to be learned is that church members must be vigilant about enforcing their own laws or it will take years and unmeasurable embarrassment to correct mistakes of wayward leadership.
I wouldn’t have found this interesting vignette without Twitter.
Use the #-tag to find topics of interest to you and follow the voices which are most interesting to you.
That’s today’s Twitter assignment! I’ll add the #-tag to a few more topics and see what surfaces.
2×2 started as a blog. It is time to spread our little wings to other realms of social media!
2×2 has been blogging seriously for about 18 months. We started in February 2011. It took us a few months to get our bearings. Only one person visited our site that month! Our stats show that our readership didn’t break triple digits until July. From our many web visits to other church web sites we figure that’s about when most churches give up on social media. We kept at it! Patience!
Our best month of 2011 was November with 623 new readers that month.
By this time we were able to see growth patterns and we predicted that we would have 12,000 new readers visiting our blog in 2012. We should exceed that benchmark with ease.
Looking ahead to 2013, we can anticipate doubling 2×2’s reach. We are nearing 1500 new visitors a month and the growth has been steady. 110 people subscribe and have our posts go to their email every day. So that’s an additional 770 views each week! Our reach is truly worldwide.
2×2 achieved this without using any other social media platforms to enhance our SEO numbers. We followed just one strategy: Offer content that will be helpful to our mission audience — seekers and lay leaders.
We continue to be surprised by the many and strong relationships we are forming with other mission-oriented church workers, many of them not Lutheran. These are rewarding and growing. We started to introduce our readers to one another and now they are referring people to us. We look forward to many new things in 2013.
Which brings us back to our Advent project.
Research shows that Twitter is the least understood social media platform with the greatest potential to reach new audiences. Better than Facebook. There are others, too. But let’s tackle one at a time!
The biggest barrier to using Twitter is understanding its potential. That’s why we have chosen December as our month to experiment. We’ll take it step by step and report our progress.
We hope you will follow our experiment and perhaps join us and share your results. We’ll try to make it easy.
How about it!?
Sharing the Gospel—140 characters at a time!
Watch for our official invitation to join the experiment which should be posted Saturday afternoon — just in time for Advent 1.
Step 1: We just opened our account:
@2x2Foundation
This required us to have an email account. We opened a free account with Google.
Several times in the last few years, I have listened to reports from various bishops and high-end church leaders concerning their visits to Africa. Some have visited Ethiopia, some Kenya, and some Tanzania.
They travel at their denomination’s expense. They return with inspiring reports of baptizing hundreds of babies and meeting church leaders.
They give these reports because they want us, here in the United States, to give offerings to these “approved” mission efforts in other parts of the world. They want us to sense that their denomination is actively engaged in the universal Christian mission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every nation.
This approach to mission work has decades of experience behind it. It also has decades of pre-social media traditions dimly lighting the way.
Is continuing this style of mission work effective for today’s world?
We serve an interconnected world. Sending official denominational representatives for on-site visits may once have been the only way for congregations to interact with mission efforts overseas.
Today, each individual has the power to connect. If the Church does not harness the power of the individual using social media tools for world mission, we are failing in our stewardship of possibilities.
Each congregation and its members have the power to communicate daily with Christians around the world. No intermediary is needed.
We can share ideas and first-hand accounts of our faith journeys. The exchange can be very personal — they with us and we with them.
A forward-thinking denomination would be working to create their own online mission communities. That would be providing a service many direct benefits. They don’t have to reinvent the wheel. They can simply harness the social media platform that suits them best.
The money spent on junkets might be better spent in building these social network circles.
It would bring new life into mission work.
2×2 is experimenting with this concept now. We correspond with several such mission ventures. We identify ourselves as Lutheran, but we’ve found no need to dwell on denominational distinctions.
As a result of our online outreach, we have first-hand reports of their work, almost daily — not just on mission Sunday. We get firsthand news! Our friends in Pakistan shared that a Lutheran Church in their city had burned as a result of recent violence. We prayed for them during the unrest. Two weeks ago they sent word that they were holding a prayer meeting for us as we faced Hurricane Sandy.
We know many in these fellowships by name. We exchange photos. We pray for one another and offer ideas and strategies. The exchange is truly two-way.
In case you are wondering, we have never sent money.
What will grow from this initiative remains to be seen, but we know this. There’s no holding us back.
God is doing something new in East Falls — and the world.
Let’s face it. One of the biggest challenges for small churches (and that includes most churches) is meeting the costs of professional leadership. Salaries and perks are the bulk of the budget.
At the first sign of financial distress, what do most churches do? Call a part-time minister.
What is the priority of every part-time solo minister? Preparing for worship and Sunday morning.
Often, that’s about all a small congregation can negotiate from their leaders. It is the frequent source of conflict.
Sunday morning preaching alone does not grow a church, especially when the sermon is delivered to only a few dozen part-time listeners. But the pressure on congregational lay leaders is to grow and transform or else, while all the congregation’s resources are tied up satisfying the salary requirement for a requisite pastor—whether that pastor is helping the congregation grow or not.
This must change.
Education is coming to realize that the responsibilities of teachers are changing. There is no longer any need for thousands of biology teachers working to craft a lecture on photosynthesis when just one expert educator can thoroughly cover the topic online, complete with visuals and links to enhance the lesson. This role can be competitive to ensure quality, but duplication in every school district is no longer necessary. The old model for education, born of pre-Information Age traditions, will soon be obsolete and recalled as quaint.
It is projected that the typical class day will flip. Listening to lectures will be the homework. Class time will be spent with instructors facilitating discussions, problem-solving and projects—what used to be called “homework.”
Similar changes will benefit the Church. Small churches do not have to devote scarce resources to pay theologians to craft a sermon on the same topic as a several thousand other pastors. This model belongs to the ages.
It may once have been necessary when information was harder to come by and many members were illiterate. As the economic model of Church shifted to totally monetary compensation, it has been pricing small churches out of existence. This is a shame. Small faith communities still hold the greatest number of total denominational membership. People like small churches. Soon, only the privileged will be able to afford to live in Christian community. The Church will have defeated its own cause.
Today, we need more pastors and fewer preachers. We need comforters, advisors, peacemakers, innovators, advocates, teachers and leaders. Knowledge of scripture and church teaching is still important in performing these roles. But the expense of dedicating one full salary to every congregation for the primary purpose of filling a Sunday pulpit is imperiling the entire Church.
If small churches are to return to prosperity, they need hands-on pastoring more than expensive preaching. Just as in education, the Church must turn its priorities upside down. Thoughtful preaching can be provided online and delivered by anyone who can speak well. Professional staff will free a day or two for hands-on interaction in the community.
Meanwhile, online preaching is being honed to an art. The temptation for many preachers is to post their ten-page sermon manuscript on-line. These do not fit the habits of online readers.
Online preaching must conform to the new rhythm of modern life. Pastor Jon Swanson broadcasts a short devotional reading daily and elaborates more fully in his blogs. 7×7 (very short daily devotion) and 300 words a day (a longer—but still short—daily blog lesson). He is growing an enthusiastic following — including 2×2.
All of us pioneers in the social media world have analytics at our fingertips. We can test and hone our skills, using actual data. Pastors preaching in sanctuaries have to guess and wait a week to correct their course.
The role of ministers must change if ministry is to remain affordable to most congregations.
We have spent these post-World War years of prosperity building a model for success that only a small percentage of congregations can hope to sustain. Many congregations exist and serve amid this atmosphere of hopelessness. It is not uplifting.
There is no need to wallow in this failure, pointing blame at the people, society or the clergy.
It just doesn’t matter. The model of Church as contained in a building and managed by a person trained in theology is about to be replaced. It’s long impending doom is at last being recognized. It was born of an era when the larger church controlled wealth and a feudal mentality, providing for its support, was ingrained.
When we found ourselves living in capitalist, industrial, corporate economies, it all began to crumble. The maintenance expenses exceeded the means of the communities we intended to serve. People became less and less engaged as more and more was expected.
No need to mourn this passing! What is going to evolve is going to be so much better!
The changes will be enabled by the First Estate (the Church) harnessing the power of the Fifth Estate (the web).
Imagine.
Here are just a few ways the Church is going to be transformed.
STRUCTURE
OLD: A hierarchy manages all education, communication and publishing, assuring that doctrine and tradition are maintained.
NEW: Congregations will seek help beyond denominational lines. It will be readily available to them online at a fraction of the expense.
OLD: A hierarchy oversees the placement of qualified leaders, with long “settled” ministries being the measure of success, making sure their salaries and benefits meet prescribed standards. Meanwhile, these desirable, settled congregations are constantly urged to “transform.”
NEW: Congregations will forsake the single pastor model as poor use of their resources. They will seek qualified help for specific short-term challenges and form ongoing relationships with several pastors. Flexible teams of ministers will serve without affiliating with any one congregation.
MISSION
OLD: A centralized office seeks theologically trained candidates, immerses them in a culture, provides additional training, and places them and their families all over the world. Congregations participate by giving offerings. Missionaries return every few years and make a tour of congregations to solicit continued support.
NEW: Individual congregations will begin to make contact with like-spirited Christians all over the world online. Denomination will be reflected in their actions not in their management. Many members will correspond, share and pray for one another with weekly engagement. Members of all ages will be online pen pals with multiple Christian fellowships. Eventually, congregations will raise money to send a few members of the congregation to visit, strengthening bonds begun online. The network of online churches will crisscross the world.
WORSHIP
OLD: Large structures with a dedicated building, common liturgy and accepted “playlist” of hymns is replicated across the country every few miles. One certified theologian is given status to repeat the words of our Lord from the Bible. Church members participate in assigned roles. Their names are listed a month in advance in the bulletin.
NEW: The structure of worship will embrace many cultures. Multiple church members will lead. Sermons will be preached online by the best articulators of the Word. Local discussions will elaborate on the Word. Members will become accustomed to weekly, spontaneous participation. Published liturgies and hymnals will be passe.
EDUCATION
CURRENT: Sunday School begins at age three and ends at age nine with desperate attempts to fill in the gap between childhood and old age with confirmation, youth ministry, singles clubs, and adult forums, following expensive curricula supplied by church hierarchy. Less than five percent of the congregation participate.
NEW: Churches, via their web sites, will link members to meaningful online forums, supplementing them with local engagement either online or in church. Short daily learnings will replace hour-long classes. Congregations linked online will share their resources and traditions.
STEWARDSHIP
OLD: Church members are encouraged to pledge to the maintenance of their building and sustenance of their clergy. Regional bodies, seminaries, and various social service entities within the church beg for additional funds. The national church adds to the appeal for dollars supplied by the same small pool of people.
NEW: Church buildings will have to multi-task their usage in the community to afford their cost. Many communities will rent or borrow appropriate space in the neighborhood. Regional bodies will provide fewer direct services. Their staffs and budgets will be trimmed substantially. Church social service agencies will completely abandon church affiliation as they recognize that cord was cut when they began seeking public funding. Congregations will choose to support service agencies that resonate with their sense of mission, regardless of their affiliation with religion. This will be an opportunity for church members to personally witness in the secular environment.
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP
OLD: Members are expected to attend worship regularly and to live within an easy commute of a church building.
NEW: Members can be anywhere in the world and participate in community online. Online statistics will be published along with membership and giving numbers.
TODAY
Much of this is already happening. 2×2 is part of this evolution revolution and already experiencing many of these transformations.
Whew! We got the Mission Statement out of the way!
Now what?
Now the work begins. The Mission Statement is an accomplishment. But if you want it to be effective in your ministry, you must start using it.
The Mission Statement is always in danger of becoming trite or taken for granted. You must keep the Mission Statement alive.
Start using the Statement immediately!
Publish it on the website,
Recite it in worship,
Print it on stationery,
Have a temple talk about it,
Read or recite it before every governing meeting.
A press release should be written and sent to local papers. Write about the process, quote the people involved. Have them answer questions such as, “How do you think the mission statement will affect your ministry?, How does it reflect your history?, How will it make a difference?”
Make a video montage of your members discussing their mission and post it on YouTube, linking it to your website. Break them into short videos and post them on Facebook. (Videos attract traffic more than any other type of post.)
Make a greeting card with the mission statement. Set the words in nice type and use a photo of your church or sanctuary. Send it with a welcome note to visitors.
(Use a service like sendoutcards.com, which allows you to use your own photos to create professional quality, custom cards. You can register with 2×2’s vendor number 85519. Call or email us and we’ll walk you through the process the first time. It’s easy and inexpensive!)
Sounds like a lot of work! But the work is just beginning.
The Mission Statement must be APPLIED to your ministry.
This might seem like a boring proposition. “How long are we going to dwell on this?” But it can bring your ministry alive!
Mix it up! Plan special sub-emphases and celebrate them on a monthly, quarterly, or seasonal basis (calendar or liturgical).
Examine your statement. How does it affect the various emphases of parish life?
worship
witness
education
evangelism
social ministry
fellowship and
stewardship
You can add biblical concepts to this list
Our mission and faith.
Our mission and justice.
Our mission and reconciliation.
Our mission and our community.
Emphasize one of these for the period of time you’ve decided on. Rotate the topics.
Make one Sunday each month Mission Sunday and choose hymns and prayers that complement your Mission as it relates to the special emphasis.
Ask each committee of your congregation to plan an activity or event around the emphasis.
Preach about it.
Create content for your web site or newsletter that addresses the special emphasis.
Adopt a service project that complements the emphasis.
Have the congregation memorize a hymn which complements the emphasis.
Hang banners in the narthex, sanctuary and over the main door that point everyone’s attention to the special emphasis.
Every time the emphasis changes, celebrate it. Write a press release. Keep your mission in your community’s consciousness.
The Mission Statement begins to define your mission.It creates a structure that motivates your congregation and shapes your ministry. The Mission Statement becomes a working document, a blueprint for your ministry — exactly what it is meant to do!
All mission should stem from some understanding of the scripture.
Here are some verses that have a specific emphasis or directive. Most are from NIV.
And while you are at it, remember: God is love.
Genesis 12:1-3 The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
Exodus 19:5, 6
Now if you will listen to Me and carefully keep My covenant, you will be My own possession out of all the peoples, although all the earth is Mine, and you will be My kingdom of priests and My holy nation.
Psalm 9:11 Sing the praises of the Lord, enthroned in Zion;
proclaim among the nations what he has done.
Psalm 100:1-3 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness:
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Who should I send?
Who will go for Us?
I said: Here I am. Send me.
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
Matthew 24:14
This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come.
Matthew 28:18-20
Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Mark 16:15
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.
Luke 24:46-48
This is what is written: the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And look, I am sending you what My Father promised. As for you, stay in the city until you are empowered from on high.
John 20:21
Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Romans 12 (practically ever verse!) Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his[b] faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another.Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.Do not be conceited.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
\Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Ephesians 5:1-2 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Philippians 4:4-5a Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all.
1 Peter 2:9-10 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people for His possession,
so that you may proclaim the praises
of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.
Matthew 19:14; Mark 10:13-16 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to him, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Matthew 22:37 ; Luke 10:27; Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your sould and with all your mind and with all your strength.
John 4:24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth.
Ephesians 4:12-13 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Colossians 3:12-14 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
2 Peter 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever!
We’ve discussed the need to look over your shoulder and include your denomination’s regional offices and other congregations.
We’ve discussed how branding helps your members understand their mission.
Now you are ready for outreach to your community.
A typical starting point in any branding campaign is to craft a mission statement.
The mission of every church is defined in the Bible.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. —Matthew 28:19-20
There are other verses you can focus on, but this one encompasses a great deal.
The task of each congregation is to refine this directive in a way that will keep your people on a chosen track of implementation.
We all know how easy it is to become distracted from our mission. This is a special challenge for small congregations. We small churches are so busy putting out fires that it is easy for us to lose our way!
There is a tendency to measure all congregations against some standard that, frankly, isn’t very well-defined. It may be a typical suburban church or a church with a well-known pastor. It is never the small church — although we outnumber larger churches!
This can be a shock to a small congregation’s self-confidence. There the driving force is often a dedicated and changing staff of lay people, who juggle uncompensated mission and ministry with work lives.
In defining your mission be true to yourself. If you are a family church, concentrate on the values of a family church—the warmth, the intimacy, the ability for newcomers to assimilate quickly. If you are a pastoral church you might have an emphasis that is a “trademark” of your leadership. That might be reaching a particular ethnic group or operating a daycare program. Your mission should express whatever binds you together as a people.
How will your group of people—with all the things you have going for you (taking into account your limitations)—fulfill Christ’s directive? In short:
How do you reach, how do you preach, and how do you teach?
You might start by asking each member this question. Their answers should help shape the “official” mission statement. Having been included in the process, they will own the mission.
Once a mission statement is adopted put it to work.
Feature it on your web site, on your stationery, and on your signage.
Hold a service to celebrate the adoption of a mission statement.
Invite several people to speak to the mission. Do this regularly!
Have a pin made or give out refrigerator magnets featuring your statement.
Make a congregational T-shirt featuring your mission. Declare T-shirt events (service projects, for example) when members should come in “uniform.”
Hang a banner over your door. (Outside where people can see it.)
Begin every service or meeting by reciting your mission together.
Write a press release and send it to local papers.
Keep your mission front and center.
But remember, your mission can change. Review it every few years to make sure you can still live up to its directive, and that, in focusing on it, you are not ignoring new opportunities. Actually, we live in such a fast-changing world that proclaiming a special mission emphasis each year might not be a bad idea. (Next post!)
This begins a series of posts on the concept of branding in the Church.
We will cover:
The branding of Christianity
The branding of denominations
The branding of individual congregations
The branding of each Christian
The branding of Christianity
“Branding” is a marketing/business term. In short, your “brand” explains how you are perceived. This can happen on at least two levels.
There is our own ego. How do we perceive ourselves?
Second: How are perceived by people we interact with?
Both are big questions.
For now, we will totally side-step the biggest question: How are we perceived by the God we worship?
Christians have done a great deal of good in history. This has often been clouded by stupid — usually selfish — ideas that became embedded into our leadership structures and became one with our culture.
Much of the world (incorrectly) views America as a Christian nation. Christians, were in fact, front and center in the rise of democracy. Some modern historians try to minimize this by stressing a Deist emphasis, but if George and Thomas, James and John and maybe even Ben were here today, they would likely argue that they are Christians.
The history of Christianity predates the rise of democracy by many centuries. During these centuries, Christianity rose from obscurity on the fringes of the known world to a dominating cultural and political force. It began to implode in the years of the Renaissance and Reformation.
Meanwhile, religious social media experts would do well to study the topic of branding.
Let’s look at our branding legacy. Many a city was plundered in the name of Christianity. Many a life was taken. Many a voice wa silenced. Talents were restrained by the leaders of Christianity. America is still coping with the damage done by our Christian foreparents who condoned slavery and the abuse of indigenous Americans and the marginalizing of women. The Bible was quoted to support many a wrong.
We might say, “That’s history.” But it is also our “brand.” We can improve it, but we cannot ignore it. We should never want to ignore it. Our memory protects our future.
Branding is something businesses take very, very seriously. Businesses want people to understand their products and services and to tell good stories about their interactions with them. They want people to think good things when they see their logo.
Religious groups want this too. We want people to think good things at the sign of the cross (or any other symbol of our faith). This is made more difficult by a growing secular bias.
America’s Separation of Church and State, designed to help religion flourish, has actually assisted in creating a chasm between the church and society. It’s difficult for churches to get serious attention in the press — unless major laws have been broken. It is equally difficult to team with government on projects of common interest. Both sides of the equation want cooperation . . . .but!
The way to bypass this cultural bias is to concentrate on branding from the bottom up. Each individual Christian is free to tell the story. Individual Christians have the best chance of being heard today — even over the clamor of centuries of abuses.
Join Bishop Ruby Kinisa as she visits small churches "under cover" to learn what people would never share if they knew they were talking to their bishop.
Undercover Bishop will always be available in PDF form on 2x2virtualchurch.com for FREE.
Print or Kindle copies are available on Amazon.com.
For bulk copies, please contact 2x2: creation@dca.net.
Contact Info
You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
the moderator of 2x2,
at
creation@dca.net
or 215 605 8774
Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
2×2 Sections
Where in the World is 2×2?
On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
As you become accustomed to using Twitter, you will want to connect with your following in other ways.
